Secret Agent

This cartoon has a great deal to recommend it. The female character, though she appears only in this cartoon, never to be seen again, is courageous and quick thinking. The pacing, albeit unrealistic, is terrifically well handled. The animators, in the days before computer animation, do a credible job with the representation of such things as geared mechanical devices. Superman has not yet evolved into the overly powerful demigod of later years, and is plausibly challenged -- especially in an early scene where he has, in the guise of Kent, leapt on the back of a speeding automobile, and cannot risk doing anything too "super".

Generally speaking, the Fleischers in this series succeed in taking what amounted to a dumbed-down combination of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche and Alexander Gillespie Raymond, and producing something genuinely exciting from it.

It should be noted, however, that this and many of the other cartoons in the Fleisher series (and in the Famous cartoons that continued it) are sometimes quite violent, and parents should preview these cartoons before allowing younger children to watch them.

Clark Kent has an argument on the phone with Perry White about what to cover as a reporter. Just as he hangs up, a couple of cars zoom by shooting at one another. Clark/Superman jumps on the back of one of the cars and is taken to the hideout of some German saboteurs. The police have been giving chase and have lost the trail. Out of the front car steps a beautiful blonde who demands to be taken to the police station where she tells the authorities that she is a secret agent and has infiltrated the organization and has a portfolio full of important documents that must be delivered to the proper people. She gets a a police escort but they are ambushed and she runs. What ensues is her admirable effort to hang on to the documents. Meanwhile, Clark is playing possum. By the way, this is the seventeenth and last of these Fleischer Superman cartoons.

A beautiful blonde (who is never named) is running away from some men who are shooting at her. Clark Kent intervenes and is knocked out, captured and tied up by the men. It seems the woman is a secret agent--she has a list of saboteurs and their evil plans. She must get the list to Washington. The police try to escort her but they are also attacked by the saboteurs. The woman escapes but becomes trapped on a bridge about to be crushed. Will Superman find out and save her?

This is barely a Superman cartoon. Lois Lane is nowhere to be found (but that blonde sounds a LOT like her). It plays more like a WWII drama with plenty of violent shootouts (I was really surprised to see a cop shot down out of his motorcycle) and action. Superman only pops up at the last few minutes to save the day. But the action more than makes up for his absence. Pretty good. A 6.

Right, well I have to say that the 1943 "Secret Agent" animated short "Superman" feature extinguished itself from the previous many short stories in the series. The storyline in this particular short story was way more action-packed than the previous ones.

And the fact that it was made in 1943, during World War II definitely showed, as the bad guy in this short story looked astonishingly similar to Adolf Hitler, and even spoke German as well. Coincidence? Or just some hidden American war propaganda? Well, you know the answer already. And with some thrown in American patriotism as Superman flies past the American flag and salutes it. Regardless, it was a fun 8 minutes to sit through, and definitely one of the more enjoyable of short "Superman" features from the 1940s.

The art style in this 1943 short story was a bit changed in comparison to the earlier ones. There was more details added to the faces of the characters, and it looked a bit more real in a way. Definitely not a bad thing.

If you enjoy the old "Superman" animated stories, then "Secret Agent" from writers Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster and Carl Meyer is definitely well-worth sitting down to watch.

My rating of directors Seymour Kneitel, Dave Fleischer and Steve Muffati's 1943 animated short feature "Secret Agent" lands on a six out of ten stars.

A SUPERMAN Cartoon.

A pretty, blonde SECRET AGENT has the paperwork to prove the guilt of an evil group of Nazi saboteurs. On the run, with her life in terrible danger, only Superman can help her now...

This was another in the series of excellent cartoons initially created by Max Fleischer for Paramount Studio. They feature great animation and taut, fast-moving plots. Meant to be shown in movie theaters, they are miles ahead of their Saturday Morning counterparts. Bud Collyer is the voice of Superman; Lois Lane does not appear in this story.